Hinriksdottir will home-in on the two-minute barrier

The likes of Iceland's Anita Hinriksdottir, one of the stars at the recent Games of the Small States in Reykjavik, would compete in the new small states competition supported by European Athletics.

Anita Hinriksdottir will capture the imagination of her home nation this afternoon when she bids for gold on the opening day of the athletics programme at the Games of Small States in Reykjavik.

The women’s 800m is at 5.05pm local time and it will be another glorious occasion for Hinriksdottir to show what a star she is.

Nine states - Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro and San Marino - compete, taking part in 11 different sports in the Games which began on Monday. Athletics is over three days: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the final day of the competition.

It gives Hinriksdottir another opportunity to break her 800m national record of 2:00.49 which has stood for almost two years as she threatens that two-minute mark again.

She is in superb form as she proved last month when she broke the Icelandic 1000m mark by running 2:36.63 in Hengelo.

But it has been a fine year for the European Athletics Junior 800m champion, who is still only 19. In March she showed her ability to mix it on the senior stage by finishing fifth in the 800m final at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, where in the heats her qualifying time of 2:01.56 was a European Junior record and a national record.

She is not alone among the Icelandic athletes looking for glory.

Last week Asdis Hjalmsdottir produced her best javelin throw since her national record of 62.77m at the Olympic Games in London with 62.14m in Riga and she will be among the favourites.

Today, European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen will meet with Illugi Gunnarsson, Iceland’s Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, accompanied by Einar Vilhjalmsson, the FRI President, and Jonas Egilsson, the President of the Athletic Association of Small States of Europe.

The main topics for the meeting will be about support for the top athletes and infrastructure of the sport in Iceland.